this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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Too Dumb To Imagine

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So dumb that you couldn't even have imagine it.

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[–] BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I work with COBOL software. That thing is so sensitive and complex, they just piled up wrappers, and apis of all kinds on top of the original COBOL code to avoid touching it because it just works. And that software is nowhere near critical as the backend for social security.

Good fucking luck

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Yes, the people that think those monsters czn just be rewritten have never actually looked at how they work. After half an hour they'd have a very different opinion.

[–] nazgul666@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

When I was working with COBOL and a 30yrs old codebase, I was always scared of majorly fucking up, even when only doing small changes.

Really glad that I am not involved in that project...

[–] pixxelkick@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

People in the US are gonna see news like this and their first thought somehow still isn't "how do I expedite emigrating"

People are going to go "haha, what a clown show" and not realize the clown show they are laughing at... is a tent burning down... and they're in that tent right now

[–] Letstakealook@lemm.ee 7 points 1 week ago

Americans can't just emigrate somewhere. What a silly ass thing to say. The majority, in fact, would not be able to.

I don't get it. I began planning my exit almost six years ago when it was fully obvious that merely voting couldn't fix that country. We still vote from afar. The ones who stayed have a fight on their hands whether they admit it or not.

Should I have stayed and fought? My family and my wife's were only Americans for one generation each. Our grandparents got swept up in the country's postwar economic might, and we grew up in the scraps of what remained while our parents' generation let Reagan accelerate a decades-long heist.

We've no illusions about the history of the UK or its current trajectory, but at least there aren't heaps of guns lying around. Sheesh.

[–] lettruthout@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

What could go wrong?

[–] Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago

Converting it to modern tools can definitely be done in a safely manner. I personally would start by running the new system in a separate network, just re-processing the requests that had been processed by the old system and checking it they came out with the same result. I would leave that on until it got to at least a year without any differences between the result of both systems. Only then would I start considering replacement.

I wouldn't trust such replacement on 95% of people I've worked with before. I definitely wouldn't trust someone with Elon's track record to manage it.

[–] cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'll watch this with glee 🍿

[–] Letstakealook@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You enjoy the old, sick, and disabled being left with zero money and zero support? What a POS.

[–] cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago

Of course I don't and you know it.